Background: Ireland is at 53°N, and its population risk of vitamin D deficiency is high. Previous Irish studies suggested a significant seasonality of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and a beneficial effect of supplementation in raising 25 (OH)D levels. However, in Irish older people, little is known about the magnitude of the supplementation effect and whether supplementation affects 25(OH)D seasonality. Design: cross-sectional observational. Setting: outpatient clinic. Subjects: five hundred and forty-six community-dwelling subjects (mean age 73.0, SD 7.4; 68.5% females) were assessed between

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has put considerable strain on healthcare systems. Aim To investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on 30-day in-hospital mortality, length of stay (LOS) and resource utilization in acute medical care. Methods We compared emergency medical admissions to a single secondary care centre during 2020 to the preceding 18 years (2002–2019). We investigated 30-day in-hospital mortality with a multiple variable logistic regression model. Utilization of procedures/services was related to LOS with zero truncated Poisson regression. Results There were 132,715 admissions in 67,185 patients over the 19-year study. There was a linear reduction in 30-day in-hospital mortality over time; over the most recent 5 years (2016–2020), there was a relative risk reduction of 36%, from 7.9 to 4.3% with a number needed to treat of 27.7. Emergency medical admissions increased 18.8% to 10,452 in 2020 with COVID-19 admissions representing 3.5%. 18.6% of COVID-19 cases required ICU admission with a median stay of 10.1 days (IQR 3.8, 16.0). COVID-19 was a significant univariate predictor of 30-day in-hospital mortality, 18.5% (95%CI: 13.9, 23.1) vs. 3.0% (95%CI: 2.7, 3.4)—OR 7.3 (95%CI: 5.3, 10.1). ICU admission was the dominant outcome predictor—OR 12.4 (95%CI: 7.7, 20.1). COVID-19 mortality in the last third of 2020 improved—OR 0.64 (95%CI: 0.47, 0.86). Hospital LOS and resource utilization were increased. Conclusion A diagnosis of COVID-19 was associated with significantly increased mortality and LOS but represented only 3.5% of admissions and did not attenuate the established temporal decline in overall in-hospital mortality.

Background: There is concern that undue ED wait times may result in adverse outcomes. Methods: We studied 30-day in-hospital mortality (2002-2017) for all medical admissions (106,586 episodes; 54,928 patients) focusing on clinical risk profile Results: Comparing 2002-09 vs. 2010-17, median ED waits > 6 hours (hr) increased 10h (95% CI: 8,13) to 15h (95% CI: 9,19). 30-day mortality declined 6.2% to 4.9%- (RRR- 20.8%/ NNT- 78). 30-day-mortality by ED wait: – < 4hr 6.6% (95% CI: 6.3%, 6.9%), 4-8hr 4.8% (95% CI: 4.6%, 5.0%), 8-12hr 4.3% (95% CI: 4.1%, 4.5%) or >=12hr 4.2% (95% CI: 3.9%, 4.5%). Conclusion: Admissions with shorter waits are overrepresented with high clinical acuity. Higher Risk Score patient with extended wait times had worse clinical outcomes.

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